Saturday, September 26, 2015

Juliane from Granite Ridge Wines is here this week to tell us a little bit about Petit Verdot.

'Petit Verdot
means 'the little green one' - it is a late ripening variety with intense
colour and high tannins.Its home is
Bordeaux, France where it is used as a small component in the Bordeaux blends
of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec.

We first
became interested in planting the variety after tasting a straight Petit Verdot
from Maclaren Vale in the late 1990s.We planted ours in 1999 and have found it suits our climate and is
relatively trouble free to grow.It
grows in a loose bunch and has small berries with thick skins, which means that
it is fairly disease resistant and can cope with our summer rains.Our vines crop vigorously and we thin the
bunches to keep the yield down.

We make a 100% Petit Verdot and also use it in
our red blends.It produces a beautiful
dense, dark wine with aromas of violets, spice and leather and some wonderful
flavours of dark berries, plums and cherries.Our current release is the 2009 Petit Verdot.'

The Stanthorpe State High School also introduced
Petit Verdot to its vineyard some years ago and this fruit was the basis of the
Banca Ridge 2013 Petit Verdot that won the first Gold medal received by QCWT
and the SSHS.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Nero
d’Avola is native to Sicily, where it’s the region’s most planted
variety. In recent years, plantings have spread to other parts of the
world, including Australia, where the Chalmers family nursery imported
the first Nero d’Avola vines in 1998 (although not released from
quarantine for cultivation until 2001). Today, there are more than 55
Nero d’Avola vineyards in Australia.(Wine Companion Magazine, online @ @ http://www.winecompanion.com.au/news/wine-companion-magazine-articles/issue-21-nero-davola).

On
the Granite Belt, Nero d'Avola is the province of Strangebird stalwart
Golden Grove Estate. 600 vines were hand chip budded by owner Sam
Costanzo and lovingly
crafted into this elegant fruit driven wine by son Ray. The 2012 Nero
D'Avola has a deep but vibrant cherry red appearance. The nose is rich
with cherries, raspberries and red forest fruits with an underlying
touch of sweet oak. The palate is soft and succulent with bursts of
perfumed ripe fruit all in perfect harmony with the fine grain oak,
plush tannins and crunchy acidity.The 2012 Vintage Grand Reserve Nero
d'Avola has won serious applause with the following awards under its belt:

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Queensland's
first ever Ophicleide Recital is happening in the concert hall at Robert
Channon Wines at Stanthorpe in Queensland’s Granite Belt on Sunday October 4th.

The concert
features Nick Byrne, Australia’s leading player of the ophicleide and David
Miller one of the country’s finest pianists. What is an
ophicleide? Why is the Battle of Waterloo important? and why is this
Queensland’s first recital?

The
Ophicleide is a 19th century brass instrument that looks a bit like
a brass bassoon.

But for the
Battle of Waterloo in 1815, it might never have been invented.

After the
battle, the victorious troops marched to Paris, led by military bands. The
Grand Duke Constantine of Russia is said to have been delighted by a particular
bandsman from an English regiment, playing a keyed bugle. Constantine had a
copy made (of the instrument not the bandsman) by instrument maker, Halary, who
in 1817 went on to develop a family of three new keyed brass instruments. He
called his soprano instrument a "clavitube", the alto a
"quinti-clave" and the bass instrument an “ophicleide".

“Ophicleide”
was a made up name from the Greek words meaning ‘serpent’ and ‘keys’. The
serpent was the excitingly named but hapless wooden tubed instrument (coiled
into a snake-like shape) that the ophicleide replaced in bands and orchestras.
Unlike the serpent though, which had been in use for more than 250 years, the
heyday of the Ophicleide was to be short. The newly invented tuba (with valves
instead of keys) swept in as the instrument of choice from the 1870’s.

How do we
know that this is Queensland’s first recital? Well, we don’t really, but
according to a paper delivered by CG Austin in 1961 on the subject of Early
Musical Performances in Queensland, the first professional orchestra to play in
Brisbane was in 1872 – already towards the end of the ophicleide’s orchestral
reign.

In recent
times, Nick Byrne (also a Sydney Symphony Orchestra trombonist) played the
ophicleide in Brisbane in a performance with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
but he says that as far as he also is aware “this will be the first time an
Ophicleide has performed in any solo capacity in Qld!”

What does
it sound like? According to the Musical Instruments Museum “This instrument is
particularly agile and endowed with a beautiful sound quality. But like all
instruments, it requires a good ear to play it correctly.”

Why should
you come to the concert? Two of Australia’s finest musicians are performing
and, it may be another 150 years before you get your next chance to hear this
noble old instrument being played.

Robert
Channon said, ”I have a small collection of old instruments including a
serpent and an ophicleide. It will be a joy to hear the ophicleide being played
properly at last. I always feel that I would be able to make a better fist of
playing it if I had been born with three hands.”

The concert
is in the Swigmore Hall at Robert Channon Wines on Sunday 4 October at 2.00.
Tickets are $25 including a glass of wine at the interval, and they can be
booked through the winery on 07 4683 3260.

Robert
Channon Wines are at 32 Bradley Lane, Stanthorpe in Queensland’s Granite Belt
where they are particularly known for their trophy and gold medal winning
Verdelhos.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Nebbiolo
makes wine with a distinct brown colour. The wines are usually long
lived and often reward cellaring for a decade or so.
In some ways Nebbiolo wines resemble Pinot Noirs in the way that they
age into wines with soft rich tannins. The wines have rich flavours
with a nose most often described as 'tar and roses'.
Some other flavours and aromas to look for are spicy, chocolate, leathery and earthy flavours. Think of a forest floor.
- See more at: http://www.vinodiversity.com/nebbiolo.html#sthash.jkclArCH.dpufNebbiolo
makes wine with a distinct brown colour. The wines are usually long
lived and often reward cellaring for a decade or so.
In some ways Nebbiolo wines resemble Pinot Noirs in the way that they
age into wines with soft rich tannins. TNebbiolo
makes wine with a distinct brown colour. The wines are usually long
lived and often reward cellaring for a decade or so.
In some ways Nebbiolo wines resemble Pinot Noirs in the way that they
age into wines with soft rich tannins. The wines have rich flavours
with a nose most often described as 'tar and roses'. Nebbiolo
makes wine with a distinct brown colour. The wines are usually long
lived and often reward cellaring for a decade or so.
In some ways Nebbiolo wines resemble Pinot Noirs in the way that they
age into wines with soft rich tannins. The wines have rich flavours
with a nose most often described as 'tar and roses'. Nebbiolo is notoriously difficult
to grow well and for Australian red wine drinkers the first taste is
often a bit unexpected, as the colour, aroma and mouthfeel are quite
different from the Shiraz most of us were brought up drinking.

Nebbiolo takes its name from the fog (nebbia) that swirls around the Piedmontese hills at harvest time. All the
literature suggests that not only is Nebbiolo difficult to grow well in
Australia, but that it can be challenging for the palate of Australian
wine-drinkers. We say 'Challenge away!'. The aroma of Nebbiolo is compared to ‘tar and roses’ and the variety 'typically
produces rich and powerful wines with high levels of acidity, alcohol and
tannins ... a distinct brown colour which is appropriately
accompanied by flavours of earth, chocolate, leather and spice' says experimental wine website Different Drop.

Multi-award winning winery Ballandean Estate produces Nebbiolo, and Leeanne Puglisi-Gangemi has this to say about the temperamental variety:

'We planted
our vines about 20 years ago and have had our ups an down with the variety. In
saying that, we are planting a little more of this variety this year to top up
our volume, so I guess you could say,we have faith in the variety

'The wine we
produce at Ballandean Estate is usually quite tannic with the characteristic
“orange” tinge of the meniscus and the flavour is bold and fruit driven.
It is not a wine to be taken lightly and definitely a ‘food friendly’
style. Served with a flavoursome pasta dish and you would swear you were
in Italy.

'With the
success of the Strangebird wine trail, we are confident that our next release,
2014 Nebbiolo will delight the adventurous wine tasters of the region.'

We're looking forward to it, Leeanne! Other producers in the region include Boireann Estate and Symphony Hill.

Some other flavours and aromas to look for are spicy, chocolate, leathery and earthy flavours. Think of a forest floor.
- See more at: http://www.vinodiversity.com/nebbiolo.html#sthash.jkclArCH.dpuf

Some other flavours and aromas to look for are spicy, chocolate, leathery and earthy flavours. Think of a forest floor.

- See more at: http://www.vinodiversity.com/nebbiolo.html#sthash.jkclArCH.dpufhe wines have rich flavours
with a nose most often described as 'tar and roses'.

Some other flavours and aromas to look for are spicy, chocolate, leathery and earthy flavours. Think of a forest floor.
- See more at: http://www.vinodiversity.com/nebbiolo.html#sthash.jkclArCH.dpuf

Saturday, August 29, 2015

This week we have a guest post from Sue and Warren at Pyramids Road, who are enthusiastic about their Strangebird variety Mourvedre, and took a wet day off from pruning to tell us all about it. Over to Sue and Warren:

Mourvedre has many names -the French call it Mourvedre,
Monastrell in Spain and Mataro in Australia. It is debatable about its origin
but it is widely planted in the south of France and near to the east coast
of Spain behind Alicante. In Australia, it was planted and grown as bush
vines in the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. These plantings have
considerable age where

some vines are 80-100 years old.

In our vineyard it stands straight and tall which means
it is a pleasure to work with. It grows with gusto and proves difficult at
pruning time as the canes grow very thick and strong. It loves the sunshine
and warm days in our summer as the tannin in the skins needs this weather to
ripen.

We love this variety as it has the potential to be used
in a blended wine or as a straight varietal wine. It classically has elements
of spice, earthy, dark cherry flavours with a tannin structure that gives
the wine great body and length. The wine is a dense purple colour that, while
delicious in its own right, is best accompanied with food. It is not for
the light hearted and accompanies any hearty meat dish on winter nights by
the fire. It creates interest in the cellar door and most people are
intrigued and willing to sample the wine. Since our first vintage in
2005 it has created quite a following and many repeat customers keen to see
how each vintage changes.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Malbec is grown by a few wineries on the Strangbird Trail - Ballandean Estate, Golden Grove, Bungawarra, Whisky Gully and Summit Estate.

A rich dark purple with blackberrry and violet notes, Malbec loves high elevation. In lower elevations, Malbec grapes struggle to produce the acidity they need to create great tasting and long lasting wine. High elevation areas with a wide diurnal temperature shift, typified by hot days and cold nights, make the grapes produce more acidity

Jeff Harden from Bungawarra says that in his vineyard, Malbec
in relatively small quantities was planted by previous
owners about 1982, for use as a blender with Cabernet Sauvignon as was
traditional in France in the Bordeaux blend. A few years ago, he realised his biggest, healthiest vines were by now those Malbec - it clearly liked
it here, so he budded some of my other vines across to Malbec (using buds from
my existing Malbec to keep the clone pure). His first 100% Malbec
wine was made at last in 2012 - a huge, peppery/berry wine ideal with
barbecues and game.